Darkness Dissolves When the Door Opens

Searching

1946

It had been five months since the first time I met Jules West and John Blanc.

My assistant, Danny Fliyes, and I were looking everywhere to find this one female person. I tracked her since her departure from the Philippines. I managed to find out that she was moved to a female trading camp in Osaka, and then moved again three days later to an after-war rehabilitation camp in Seoul.

“Where the hell is she now?” My tone was flushing out. I could not believe the man standing in front of me was the manager of the big facility. He was probably the shittiest American I have ever met.

“Dude, if I know, I would probably tell you. But frankly, I do not.”

“But you’re the fucking manager! How can you not know? Did she escape? Taken? Abducted? Tell me goddammit!”

“Come on, dude. Chill the fuck up. She’ll come back in a few days anyway.”

“Are you kidding me? Do you even rehab your patients here, or do you just stare them all day long and give them bed to nap?”

“Dude, escaping patients are too common to be true. You need to understand the heavy situation I’m always in.”

I was lost for words. This so called ‘manager’ didn’t even know a single patient name. He pitied himself and he hated his job. But hating it doesn’t mean you don’t care a piece of single shit about it. How did he even get the position anyway?

I strode without saying anything, leaving the fat man in the center of his insanely big office. I searched for caretakers and guards. One of them knew Himari and was kind enough to show me around.

“This is her room.”

“Thanks.” 

The room was like a prison chamber in Thailand. There was one bunk bed with the occupant on top. She looked Asian. She read a book called ‘How to Beat Jeps’.

“Hello,” I said, trying my best tone possibly. When she lowered her book, I could see her full face. She was also very young and sweet.

She smiled after my greet.

“Can you understand me?” I asked politely. “Can I ask you some questions?”

She nodded, and then she said something in Korean.

The guard outside stepped in. “I can translate for you.”

“Oh, thank you.” Thank god there was still a sane person here. Working with a boss like that douche manager at the top floor must be nauseating.

“What’s your name, beautiful?”

The guard knew the name, but he still translated my words and she replied. She was like a fast, Korean rapper when talking.

“Her name is Ara.”

“OK, Ara. Your roommate, Himari Ashoka, do you know when did she leave?”

She nodded and rapped back at the guard. “She said probably two weeks ago.”

Damn. That’s pretty far back.

“Do you know how she escaped?”

“A man with a formal letter picked her up. The guard opened the gate and took her with him.”

A man with a formal letter? What the hell was that supposed to mean?

“Do you know about any of this?” I asked to the guard now.

“No.”

I stared back at Ara. “Can you umm… describe the man?”

“He was very tall, thin, wore a blue navy suit and a weird, unmatched polka dots tie. He had a weird, gross wound on his cheek. He also brought a tall man in black. There was a gun strapped to the second man’s waist. She thinks he is his bodyguard.”